15 years after its initial release, Califone’s seminal album from 2001, Roomsound, will be reissued on October 14th via Dead Oceans. Beginning as a Red Red Meat album, this record, born of a particularly brutal Chicago winter, would become Califone’s first proper album (2 EPs in 1998 and 2000, notwithstanding). “Roomsound was a real beginning. By listening. By letting it be, by force,” says the band’s Tim Rutili. “I remember the stomach ache and winter tense in my shoulders. Computers were new to me. We chip away at it. All of us were discovering new ways to work and use the room. On and off over the course of about 6 months, we finished it. It sounded enormous and important to me. I feel like we made something good.”
Today, the band is excited to share the track list for the reissue, which is available for pre-order today, and which includes a bonus LP of five songs that are being widely released for the first time. Hear the leadoff track from this bonus LP, “Mittens (4-Track Version),” here.
Lastly, Califone will perform Roomsound in its entirety over select dates this fall. Rutili will lead a full-band comprised of the original members that recorded the album: Ben Massarella and Brian Deck with RossAndrews and Wally Boudway. A full list of dates is below.
Califone Roomsound Tour Dates [tix]:
Thu. Sep. 22 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Fri. Sep. 23 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Sat. Sep. 24 – Brooklyn, NYC @ Rough Trade
Thu. Oct. 6 — Los Angeles, CA @ Highland Park Ebell Club
Fri. Oct. 7 — San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Fri. Oct. 14 — Seattle, WA @ The Sunset
Sat. Oct. 15 — Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
